


On The Barre

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Avengers Family, Ballet, Communication, Established Bucky/Natasha, F/M, Getting Together, Human Disaster Clint Barton, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Pining, Polyamory, Self-Worth Issues, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:12:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16431845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Tony's short-lived childhood dream of learning ballet was forgotten until he saw the people he'd fallen for dancing. Next thing he knows, Natasha and Bucky are offering to teach him, and he has to try and focus on the lesson instead of the way they look in skintight clothing.





	On The Barre

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Menatiera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/gifts).



> This was so much fun to write ^-^ and it was so interesting to play around with the characters in a way I normally don't do. 
> 
> Also I couldn't find tags for the specific things I wanted to say so here it is: the trauma tag refers to past trauma, and the little traces it's left on our faves, as well as them talking about it a little bit. Again, nothing explicit, but there's some talk about Nat's Red Room experience.

Tony knew that Bucky and Nat had a history together, one that effectively ruined his chance at a relationship with either of them-- and that was before they even got back together. It was, in Tony's opinion, the most arrogant act of his life, to have believed that he could have been with either of them, let alone both. Although he did appreciate all the knowledge he know had on polyamory, because it sounded like he, Rhodey, and Pepper could be in a relationship like that with very little to change to how they already interacted. If he gave it another decade or two, he was pretty sure that they'd both be up for it.

He'd had a crush on Nat when she first showed up, more Black Widow around him than Nat, but when that faded he found his crush turning into feelings. Bucky had shown up at the Tower one day, a ball of emotional scar tissue in the form of one ridiculously attractive super soldier, and Tony added him to the list of ex-assassins he was going to pine hopelessly after. Thankfully that list was only two people, but just to be safe, he kept his distance from Clint for a while.

As a first impression, he thought that Bucky and Nat didn't like each other, both of them unable to feel comfortable around the other and therefore deciding on avoidance. It was easier to imagine for that short period of time that one of them would look past his aging body and the rougher parts of his personality and decide to give him a chance.

…but then he saw them dancing and that hope was crushed. The music in the gym was some sort of nondescript classical, and Tony had frozen in the doorway, mesmerized by the way they moved together, at the flex of muscle, and the complete and utter trust Natasha showed in Bucky, knowing where he would be when and trusting that he would never drop her. Tony's mouth went dry as he watched the flow of their bodies to the music until they stopped, breathing heavily.

Miraculously, neither of them had noticed him standing in the doorway, but that just meant that he went from innocently watching to eavesdropping on a clearly private moment.

"I didn't know you still danced," Bucky said, voice rough with emotion.

"I usually don't." She stepped away from his body, looking like it took monumental effort.

Tony snuck away before they could spot him, but he couldn't help an invasive question to Jarvis to confirm that that had been the end of it. A month later, Bucky kissed Natasha as the team returned from a mission, and the hope that Tony thought had already been killed was pulverized into a fine paste. He rubbed at his aching heart and told himself that he was only having a midlife crisis, lusting after two young, hot superheroes that he had no hope of bedding. Instead of that convincing him to let it go though, it made him accept that he was pathetic, and he pined after them even worse than before.

The universe must fucking hate him because it didn't take very long for him to walk in on them in the gym again. He wasn't as careful as the first time though, because the music ended and he didn't move an inch. Nat took a couple steps towards him, and he didn't notice, watching the way her feet landed on the pads, still stepping gracefully and with her feet angled like she was dancing ballet.

"You okay?" she asked worriedly, and Tony slowly raised his eyes to meet hers like he was in a daze.

"'m fine."

"Are you sure?" Bucky asked, and damn him, he looked worried too.

"Yes," Tony snapped, turning around and leaving without another word. His mind was clogged with memories, a handful of them filled with awestruck wonder and hope, but most of them were miserable and packed with hot shame. He'd been to a few ballets with Maria and Howard when he was younger, and he'd had dreams of being both an engineer and a ballerino. He hadn't said anything to either of his parents, knowing that they would not be supportive, but Howard had caught him doing an incorrect stretch while frowning at an instructional book one day, and it… hadn't ended well. They didn't bring him to anymore ballets after that, and he buried the dream deep in him after a few more fights, the desire hidden until fucking Natasha and Bucky brought it back up. He did yoga with Bruce that day instead of his usual exercises, and he pretended like he didn't wish he was somewhere else. Bruce noticed, but he was a good bro about it and didn't say a word, just offered Tony some of his tea.

He wanted that to be the end of it, but Bucky and Nat accosted him with takeout for dinner and it's not like he could say no.(He ignored that this is what they did for dinner at least once a week, and really it wasn't that strange for them to do it every single night, so it was hardly 'accosting' him.)

He was nervous at first, expecting them to bring up his earlier freak out, but as dinner went on and they said nothing, he began to relax. That was a mistake.

"So," Nat said, stirring the fried rice like she was searching for something in its contents, "what was that thing earlier about?"

"What thing?"

"In the gym."

"Don't know what you're talking about," he said, then wanted to hit himself. That was not what an innocent person said, and he was old enough to know that a couple dozen times over.

"Are you sick?" Bucky asked.

"What?" Tony said, thrown.

"Are you sick?"

"No," he blurted out dumbly, realizing afterwards that he should have said 'yes, in fact I have a rather mean cold so I should probably go'. He sighed, cursing his stupidity. "Don't worry about it guys, it's nothing."

"Nothing like actually nothing?" Nat asked. "Or nothing like the palladium poisoning?"

"I'm not sick."

"You didn't look well earlier," Bucky insisted, "and then you ran off looking like you might pass out."

"That's just my face Barnes."

"Tony," Nat said seriously. "What's going on?"

They both waited patiently for him to answer. They might both be trained interrogators, but Tony had been practicing his brand of stubbornness and idiocy since he was out of the womb. Not to mention that they weren't going to use any of the more influential methods for interrogation, so really he had nothing to worry about.

…Except they were two of his best friends and he didn't like ignoring them. So while he could have continued to ignore them, he didn't want to. "It's stupid," he mumbled. Neither of them said anything, waiting for him to elaborate because they knew trying to prompt him wouldn't help. He took a deep breath, pushing the rejected pieces of carrot around the bottom of an otherwise empty carton. "I wanted to learn ballet. When I was younger." He shrugged, his shoulders tight. "It was a stupid dream." Not suitable for men, Howard had said as part of his rant. "And nothing ever came of it." He laughed harshly at himself. "I don't even know the basics."

"Did you want to learn?" Natasha asked softly.

His hand froze. "What?"

"No one's going to stop you," she said.

"It was just a stupid dream," he repeated, but he wasn't doing a very good job of hiding the hope in his voice. "Besides," he said, tone dropping to something more hopeless, "it's not like I can walk into a studio and ask to sign up for class."

"We can teach you," Nat said, and she was just as surprised as Bucky and Tony were at what she'd said. She glanced at Bucky before looking back at Tony. "Between the two of us, we can teach you the basics."

"Really?" Tony asked hopefully, eyes darting between the two of them.

Bucky was looking at Natasha, trying to convey that he thought this was a fucking terrible idea, but when Tony looked at him, he still said, "Sure. We can start tomorrow if you want."

"Yeah that's- that'd be great," Tony said with a grin.

* * *

Tony spent about half an hour wondering if he should buy a leotard or if that was an out of date piece of clothing or if that was only needed for professionals and not a beginner's lesson. He had Jarvis place an order and cancel it so many times he was convinced that Jarvis was just humoring him when he said he placed the order. Regardless, he ended up wearing a loose shirt and yoga pants to the gym, and he hoped that that was good-- or good enough at least.

Bucky was already there when he showed up, sitting on a weight bench and gnawing worriedly on his lip.

"Where's Nat?"

Bucky looked up and gave him a smile. "Grabbing water I think."

Tony raised an eyebrow and sent a pointed look to the water fountain-- yes, an honest to god water fountain in the Avengers' personal gym-- he'd installed in the wall during construction.

"She prefers bottles," Bucky said with a shrug. His lip was a little red from the way he'd been worrying it, and Tony had trouble not staring. "We can start stretchin' though." He moved towards the center of the mat and made an aborted motion before glancing at Tony. "D'you know how to stretch?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "I know how to stretch Barnes."

"Right. Sorry."

Just to make a point, Tony started stretching before he did. Bucky silently fell into place beside him, and Nat came into the room when they were getting close to finished.

"Hey babe," she said, setting her armful of bottles at the edge of the mats.

When Bucky didn't respond, Tony shot him a look. He stared back evenly. "She's talkin' to you." Tony blinked. "She doesn't call me 'babe'," he explained.

"He's done nothing to earn pet names."

Bucky nodded seriously to Tony, cracking a smile when Tony laughed. "You're both ridiculous," he said.

"You love us," she said.

"It's a tragedy really," Tony said. "A towerful of people with destructive tendencies and all I get in return is the occasional hug and pet name."

"And ballet lesson," Bucky added. "And you can get more hugs and pet names doll, all you gotta do is ask."

Tony huffed out a laugh. "Stick with the ballet lesson Bucky bear, I wouldn't want to stress you out with so many duties."

"We can share," Natasha said, and it sounded like she was talking about something outside the current joke, so Tony let it fall to the side with an uncertain chuckle.

Tony finished up his stretches and clapped his hands together, softly though because between the three of them they had more baggage than an airport. "So, what first?"

"Did you stretch?" Nat asked, and Tony frowned.

"You just saw me," he said, gesturing down towards the mat where he'd been sitting while working on his legs.

"I just want to make sure," she said, beckoning him towards her as she walked to the floor to ceiling mirrors that lined one of the walls of the gym.

He went willingly, if a little confused. How was she going to make sure? When he got close to her, she pat the bar that was in front of the mirrors, and Tony just continued looking, uncomprehending.

"Put your leg up here kotyonok," she said, the corner of her mouth tilting up the only sign that she found his lack of knowledge amusing. Tony did as she asked. "Alright, now point your toe. Okay." She moved behind him, one hand high on the thigh that wasn't up on the barre, and the other firm against his back like she was going to push him. After a moment, her hand reared back before returning, more gentle and cautious this time. "Lean forward. Slowly," she added, like it was a foreign concept for her to say that. He might not have thought anything of it, except he saw her look to Bucky in the mirror, as well as Bucky's comforting little nod.

Tony started to lean, wondering what he was supposed to be watching out for, if anything. He stopped when he reached his limit, and Natasha frowned, her hand making an aborted movement again, only this time she took it off entirely and stepped to the side.

"Why'd you stop there?"

Tony straightened and turned to face both of them, leaning his butt against the barre in an effort to look more casual than he felt. "Arc reactor," he said with a shrug. "I can't breathe if I go any lower. The position makes my lungs too small."

Bucky and Natasha shared another look, longer this time.

"Is… that a problem?" He knew that he wouldn't be dancing anywhere near a professional level, but he didn't want this fucking metal cylinder in his chest to make  _ any  _ ballet impossible for him.

"You know your limits better than we do," Bucky said, which wasn't really an answer. "Tell us if we push too hard."

Tony didn't really know what that was supposed to mean, but he nodded all the same. He'd probably know the situation Bucky was talking about when it happened, and really that was the only time he needed to know.

That moment was six point eight seconds in. Tony winced at Natasha trying to get him in the correct position for a different stretch-- trying to bring his leg up instead of his torso down-- and she just kept going. If it had been anyone else, Tony would have worried that they were going to tell him that this was par for the course and he needed to buckle up or leave. But it wasn't anyone else, it was Natasha and he trusted her more than he would have thought he was capable of given how they met and all the shit that happened afterwards.

It wasn't until Tony said, "Wait," that she paused.

She tilted her head up from where she'd been looking at his leg, frowning in confusion.

"I can't bend that way," he said with a nervous chuckle. He knew that ballet was difficult, but this seemed to be pushing it a little for a beginner. Or maybe Stane had been right when he said that Tony should stick to intellectual ventures instead of physical. Of course, he'd been talking about Tony's training with Happy at the time, but it applied here.

"Oh," she said still frowning like it had never occurred to her before. She glanced back at Bucky who gave a helpless shrug that Tony didn’t catch. "Right." She cleared her throat and backed up slowly, looking at nothing as she searched for something appropriate to start with. Tony didn’t understand what the issue was, but he’d also never tried to be a teacher of  _ anything _ before. Maybe it was more complicated than he’d been thinking. After all, he wouldn’t be able to teach basic calculus even though he was technically a genius. "I guess… we can start on barre?"

"We're already on the bar," Tony said.

"There are- oh! Well I feel stupid," she muttered, so low under her breath that only Bucky, with his enhanced hearing, could hear her. Tony could only hear that she was speaking, and rather thought they were curses than anything else. "Starting on barre means going through the basic moves, but you don’t know positions, let alone the ballet specific stretches. Basic positions. You need to learn those," she said, sounding more like she was talking to herself than to him. 

"Positions," Tony repeated. "Alright, I can do that," he said, trying to inject some excitement in his voice to help recover from the bad start.

"There are five, and they're going to feel weird at first. They aren't ways you would ever stand on your own."

"Okay."

"This is first," Natasha said, demonstrating. Her heels were touching, but her toes were 180 degrees from each other.

Tony tried but he felt like he was going to topple over at a moment's notice. Also his dick was in the way and he didn't know how to deal with that since Natasha wasn't having the same problem.

He jumped at the first touch of Bucky's hands on his legs, simply because he'd forgotten he wasn't doing something else while Tony stumbled through this. Why he thought that, he had no idea, because they had clearly said that they were both going to try and walk him through this. "Like this," Bucky murmured, pressing gently on the outside of his thighs to get him into a better position.

It still felt weird, but it was less like he was going to fall over. Tony took a deep breath. He could do this. "What's this called."

"First position," Natasha said, voice dry to try and make sure he knew she was joking.

It worked; Tony laughed. "Creative. You said there are five?"

"Yep," Bucky said, and because his chest was pressed against Tony's back, he could feel him breathing. He suppressed a shiver and told his libido to cool it, he would jerk off later.

"Great. Are they all this awkward?"

"Second position's fine," Bucky said, and Tony laughed.

"So I only have to worry about the other four. Am I supposed to be doing something with my arms right now?"

"There are positions for them too," Natasha said.

"Another five things I need to remember."

"There are six actually."

"Bleh," Tony said, wrinkling his nose and fighting the urge to lean back into Bucky. "They did not think that through. Who came up with this bullshit? I want to file a complaint."

"I think they're long dead kotyonok," Natasha said, amused.

"Killed by the people before you who were annoyed," Bucky added.

"They were not," Tony argued with a laugh.

Bucky shrugged, accidentally jostling Tony. "Does it matter? It made ya laugh."

Natasha talked before Tony had to try and think of a response. "This is first position. Got it? Heels together, toes facing outwards." She stood normally, then went into first position again.

Tony did the same, a lot shakier than she had been and taking longer than she had, but he did it all the same. "First position, got it. What's second?" he asked, going to a normal stance, but Natasha shook her head.

"Get back in first," she ordered, then realizing how she'd said that, winced. "Uh, please. You go from first to second."

Tony got back in first, and watched as Natasha simply went up on her toes and rotated her heels out so that she was standing almost normally, if a little wide on her heels. Tony tried to mimic the motion, only needing a little help from Bucky to correct his stance. Tony nodded to show that he got it.

Natasha said, considerably more gently than the first time, "Now go to first."

He tried to slide his feet back the reverse of how he'd gotten there, but the movement was awkward, and he made a face at himself as he corrected. He didn't need any help from Bucky, but he kept his hands on Tony's legs all the same, figuring that if he had a problem with it, he'd say something.

Natasha went back to first as well, doing so seamlessly. Tony was jealous for an instant, until he remembered that she'd gotten perfect from nothing short of torture. The ugly emotion evaporated as easily as it came, and he focused on watching her feet, following as she went from first to second, then slowly to what he assumed was third, sliding one of her feet so that they made a 't' shape.

Tony thought he did pretty well for a first try, and Bucky slid one of his legs along the length of Tony's to nudge his foot so it was more firmly in place. He retracted after a moment, but it felt like a line of fire was raising his skin from the outside of his foot all along his leg up to his hip bone.  _ Please don't get a stiffy in front of them please don't get a stiffy in front of them _ , he begged his body.

He held his breath for a minute, and let it out slowly when it looked like his body was going to listen to him, thank Thor.

"You alright?" Natasha asked, eyes glinting with insight.

Tony felt like his heart stopped in his chest, and he flushed, ashamed. "'m fine," he mumbled, looking down at his feet, ostensibly to check how he was holding the position, but he knew that she knew better.

"You want to call it quits for the day?"

"We've barely done anythin'," Bucky said, either not aware of what was happening or pretending that he was.

"No she's right," Tony said quickly, pulling out of his hold. "I don't want to try and learn too much and have next week be exactly like this one, you know? I can remember these three, and if I can't, I'll just ask Jarvis to pull up the video for me. See you at dinner." He quickly made his way for the door, knowing that he was fleeing and not caring.

Jarvis was a good friend, and he had the elevator door open and waiting for him, closing it as soon as he was comfortably inside. "Thanks bud."

"Not a problem sir," he said demurely. "If I may though?"

Tony made a suspicious face at the ceiling. "I don't know. Am I going to mute you for it?"

"Unlikely, but I would never presume to fully know what actions you will take as you surprise me on a daily basis."

Tony sighed, slumping against the elevator wall and wondering if it would be completely extravagant to make the walls heated so that unsuspecting geniuses didn't freeze their unprotected bodies on the metal. "Go ahead."

"It's possible that Miss Romanoff and Mister Barnes-" ‘Mister’ since Bucky had asked to not be called 'Sergeant' mere days after arriving, back when he could barely tell someone to stop looking at him because it made him feel like they were about to punish him "-would welcome you into their relationship."

Tony wanted to roll his eyes and tell Jarvis that he didn't have to flatter him, he would still have a job at the end of the day. He bit back the urge and pushed himself off the not-as-cold-anymore wall when the elevator doors opened, and he made his way to the kitchen. "What makes you think that?"

"Your heart was not the only one beating faster."

"Circumstantial. We were exercising."

"There were other physical signs of sexual interest, but I believe it would be what Mister Barton calls 'rude' to disclose the full list of evidence. Suffice it to say sir, that at one point or another during your ballet training session, both Miss Romanoff and Mister Barnes were interested in you."

"It's the yoga pants," Tony said automatically, but his mind was reeling. They were interested? In him? But he's… well, old. And they're both young and going to stay that way for quite some time if the past twenty years have been any indication of how the serum affects their aging.

He opened the fridge and pulled out the orange juice bottle, glaring at it when it lifted too easily. He held it above his head and checked the bottom: empty. "Jarvis, who did this?"

"It has been requested that I not tell you."

"Steve then." Steve was the only one that asked Jarvis to keep quiet about things since Bruce didn't care, Clint thought it was cheating, and Sam didn't know it was possible. "What time did he leave?" Tony asked, because the nice thing about Steve was that when he asked Jarvis to not say anything it was because he was on his way to fixing it and just wanted it done before anyone found out.

"Captain Rogers left for the store twenty three minutes ago," and it was a thirty minute trip if he stopped to take selfies with everyone that asked-- which he always did-- so Tony nodded and got out a glass for when he arrived.

"What's on the agenda for today?" Tony asked as he settled into a seat around the massive table that now took up the kitchen.

Jarvis started talking, filling him in one what Pepper had sent over. She always had two lists for him, one of what she ideally wanted done, and the other for what absolutely had to be done. On bad days, where he could barely breathe and his vision was filled with little black spots so frequently that he forgot they were there, he only did the second list. Most of the time though, he tried to fill the first, knowing that if he ever wanted to take a vacation, this would only stand to help him in her book.

Steve got back while Tony was talking with Jarvis, moving things around on his priority list. He guiltily placed the full orange juice next to the empty one on the table before grabbing the latter and throwing it in the garbage. "Sorry," he said with an apologetic smile when Tony and Jarvis stopped. "I had a craving after lunch."

Tony waved him off, draining half his glass then refilling it. "What've you been up to?" Tony asked, not so sneakily trying to avoid his afternoon workload. "I mean, besides giving poor engineers back their orange juice."

Steve gave him a flat look for the ‘poor’ label. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"It's just how people dress these days Cap."

"If they're sorority girls maybe." He peered at Tony, as if searching his appearance for signs that he wasn't forty five and was actually a twenty year old girl in disguise. "Is there something you want to tell me, Tony?"

"Fuck off."

Steve leaned back with a laugh. "It's been a pretty boring day honestly. I was supposed to have a date tonight, but she canceled."

"Why?"

"She says that her brother came into town."

"You don't believe her?"

Steve made a face that Tony took to mean that yes, he absolutely thought she was lying, but that wasn't a nice thing to accuse someone of when he wasn't a hundred percent certain.

"I'm sorry," Tony said, mouth twisting in a sympathetic frown.

Steve shrugged. "I think she stopped being interested after she realized that I didn't want to go home with her on the first date."

"One night stands have their place, you know. They're not for everybody," he said quickly, not wanting Steve to think that he was pressuring him, "but that might be something to consider? Until you're a little more over Peggy, that is."

"I'm over Peggy," Steve said, but his jaw was doing that clenchy thing.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "We're not judging you, you know. It's okay to take your time."

"I've had time."

"You've spent four years pretending that you're over her, not four years of actually getting over her."

"I don't think sleeping with strangers is going to help me."

"Then don't sleep with strangers."

"What?"

"Sleep with a friend," Tony said with a shrug like that was the casual conclusion that everyone would reach if they thought about it for two seconds.

"Is that an offer?" Steve asked, but he was smiling slightly as he said it, so Tony knew he was joking.

"Did we walk in on something?" Natasha asked, looking between the two of them.

Tony shook his head, unable to keep a smile off his face at Steve being able to joke around about something like that. When they met, he never would have thought the man capable of it.

"Just jokin' around," Steve assured them, his accent strengthening by Bucky's mere presence. "Stephanie canceled on me."

Natasha hummed like that was the exact opposite of a surprise and took the nearest seat at the table, which put her directly across from Tony. Bucky, however, gave Steve a sympathetic look. "Shit Steve I'm sorry."

"You're all acting like we broke up. We didn't in case you were wondering."

"Not yet," Bucky said.

"Do you all know somethin' I don't?"

"We know lots of things!" Clint declared as he walked into the kitchen. "What do we know?" he asked Natasha.

"That Cap's loving girlfriend isn't so loving and that soon she won't even be a girlfriend," she told him.

"Guys," Steve said, only to be ignored.

"Oh, that. I wouldn't worry about it Cap-Cap. A relationship like that would never have worked."

"A relationship like what?" he asked, exasperated.

"You have the same name. Either she has the girl version of your name, or you have the guy version of hers, but since we're your friends, I figured it's the first one."

"That's not what I was gonna say," Bucky muttered.

"You might as well share since the rest of 'em are. What's wrong with her Buck?"

"She looked at you like you weren't real. You weren't Steve t' her, you were Captain America."

Natasha nodded. "She wanted to live out fantasy porn she had in her head of taking the innocent, virginal Captain America to bed and teaching him how great pussy is. Trust me, Steve, you're better off. Although I recommend holding off on breaking up with her so she won't think it's for the canceled date."

Steve, who had choked on his tongue halfway through Natasha talking, was now red in the face. "How am I supposed to go out with her again now that you've said that?!"

"You'll find a way, I have faith in you." Bucky gave him a thumbs-up, which felt woefully inadequate.

"Can we talk about something else, please? Anything?"

"Well," Clint said, sitting on the counter and eating peanut butter with a spoon straight from the jar, "we could always talk about how Nat and Bucky look like they just got done with an afternoon quickie but Tony is dressed the same as them, which makes it look like he was with them right up until they started--" He cut off when a knife from one of the Russian assassin pair hit his spoonful of peanut butter and made him drop it on the rug. "Aw peanut butter no."

They were all still for a moment.

"I have work I should be doing," Tony said, and Jarvis, bless his circuits, backed Tony up by saying that he was running late if he wanted to keep on schedule. Granted, he was talking about Pepper's preferred schedule instead of the one he and Tony had agreed on five minutes prior, but none of them knew that.

* * *

None of them brought it up again at dinner, and Tony, for the most part, pretended that it had never happened. The only time he didn't pretend was when he was alone and had nothing better to do than think about how there was a possibility that they'd been thinking of him-- at least a little-- when they'd had sex that afternoon.

Of course now it was a week later and they were back in the gym and he'd gotten off right before he showed up in the hopes that it would force his libido to stand down long enough for him to get through this lesson.

None of them brought up what Clint had said, and they made it through the entire lesson with no issues. Well. No more than Tony now expected. He went through first, second, and third positions for his feet easily, having practiced over the last week with the hope of earning their approval; he did.

Fourth position was easy, just sliding one of his feet from the other from third position, but fifth position felt like hell. He literally could not do it properly, and as with the beginning of the first lesson, it took Natasha a moment to understand what was going on. As soon as she realized the problem, she assured him that they would add additional stretches to what he was already doing so he wouldn't hurt himself. He didn't tell her that he'd already done something to his knee and now it felt wobbly, like he wouldn't be able to put his full weight on it without buckling.

They were able to call the lesson to an end because it felt like the natural conclusion this time, not because Tony had to run off for a wank. He learned the annoyingly asymmetrical six arm positions, but once it was explained that they were used for choreography more than the basics, he let it slide-- but slide like one of those cheap slides that kids always got stuck on, because he was still annoyed that they had the foot and arm position numbers off by one instead of keeping them even.

They drilled the two different kinds of positions, and by the end of the lesson, Tony was able to all of them (except for fifth position for feet) on command, his feet or arms moving to the proper position before his brain was able to catch up and place them exactly how they needed to be. It was a simple thing to be proud of, but he was.

He was less proud of his inability to do the basic barre exercises. After ten minutes and some questionable self-reflection, Natasha had said that maybe he wasn't supposed to be doing a plie as deep as she was. A quick google search courtesy of Jarvis showed that no, Tony didn't have to go as low as Natasha did. He'd known that he couldn't make the line of his feet blend that smoothly with his calves, but until Jarvis said otherwise, he'd thought he could get his thighs that straight-- spoiler: he couldn't. The rest of the barre exercises were fine actually, more about stretching and getting a feel for how he needed to know to move, but he was still embarrassed by his failure with plies. (Could he blame it on his knee? He was going to blame it on his knee.)

He was only a little sweaty after the lesson, but he took a shower all the same. Instead of steamy fantasies like he'd been afraid of, his mind was filled with something much worse: dreams of domesticity. "Jarvis?" he asked, dispersing a cozy scene of cuddling on the couch while they watched it storm through the floor length windows that made up most of the walls.

"Yes sir?"

"Do you really think they're interested in me?" He didn't have to specify who he was talking about since Jarvis was more than aware of who he meant.

Jarvis softened his voice a touch. "Yes sir."

Tony nodded to himself-- and maybe a little bit to Jarvis-- and finished letting the hot water soothe his muscles. He turned off the water and loved Jarvis all the more for making sure that while the air in the bathroom was cool, it wasn't cold. He stepped out of the shower and winced, his injured knee buckling slightly. "Remind me to check on that in a few hours."

"Of course sir. Shall I interrupt your current project to see that it gets done?"

Tony nodded, and Jarvis made a confirming noise.

When he was in bed that night was when the dirty thoughts started, and he teased his length, working himself up not just for the sensation, but because the little fantasy he had in his mind played out that way.

He felt a little empty after he came, cold and lonely in a way he usually didn't since he had started being Iron Man. He shuffled to the bathroom to clean up and, at Jarvis's instruction, grabbed an ice pack for his knee while he slept.

His knee was swollen when he woke up, but only a little, so Tony thought as long as he didn't do anything stressful to the joint, it would be fine. He limped to the kitchen then paused, seeing half of the team there. Steve and Sam were gone since this was a morning where they volunteered at a homeless shelter. It was too late to turn around and pretend like he didn't need anything from the kitchen, so he continued walking and tried to hide his limp as best he could. It didn't do much, but then, he hadn't held out hope for that.

"What happened?" Bucky asked, and there was no playing dumb on what he was asking about.

Tony thought it was worth a try anyways, and said, "Hm?"

Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Your leg."

"Oh." He glanced down at it as if just realizing that something was wrong, not that he thought either of them would buy that. "Twisted my knee weird yesterday at practice," he said with a shrug, hoping they wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

"Are you okay?" Bucky asked, a little more concerned than Tony thought was necessary. It was just a knee after all, and he'd had much worse from villains.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Neither of them said anymore about it, letting Clint take over with a story that involved him, a raccoon, and a fight over a dumpster. From anyone else it would have sounded completely fake, but Clint? Tony could believe that since he'd seen Clint get into an argument with a pigeon once, and he wasn't sure if it was over the sandwich that ended up falling to the street, or the perch on the rooftop's edge. Clint (probably) won though.

Clint was pouring himself yet another bowl of Trix cereal when Tony finished, putting his bowl and spoon in the dishwasher and heading for the living room. He thought perhaps he was free from any embarrassment for a while, but then he heard Natasha and Bucky following after him.

"Get on the couch," Bucky ordered, and Tony followed where he was pointing automatically. Bucky grabbed the edge of the table and pulled it closer to the couch before sitting on it. He pat his knee, signaling that he wanted Tony to put his foot on his lap.

He hesitated, but at seeing Natasha's crossed arms and expression that meant short of a villain attack he wasn't getting away, he gave in.

Bucky put his metal hand on Tony's foot, not doing anything yet, just running his thumb along the arch of Tony's foot in a way that almost tickled but mostly just made him short of breath. With his other hand, he pushed up the leg of Tony's pajamas to just over his knee, where it was already starting to swell worse than when he'd woken up. "You shouldn't be walking on that."

"I have places to be Buckaroo; I can't cancel all my plans for this week just because I'm getting old."

"You're not getting old," Natasha said, and Tony scoffed at that obvious lie.

"You're not," Bucky agreed, taking Tony's foot more firmly in his hand and rolling it at the ankle before slowly stretching it this way and that, helping relieve tension from his leg that Tony hadn't noticed was there. "Body's are fickle, and you're puttin' yours through a lotta stress. It makes sense that it's havin' issues."

Natasha sat next to Bucky, close enough that their arms were bumping together. "Tony, Bucky and I have been wanting to talk to you about something for a while now."

Bucky froze, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. "Are we really doin' this now?" he asked lowly, almost nervously.

Tony blinked, looking between the two of them cluelessly.

"What other time is there to do it?" Natasha whispered back.

"You do know I can hear you right? You don't really have to whisper," he said awkwardly.

They ignored him. "I thought we were gonna wait."

"For what? The perfect moment? There's never going to be one, and I refuse to join Steve's "Waited Too Damn Long" club."

"Tony's not goin' anywhere and neither are we."

Tony interrupted them loudly. "Tony's right here and would like to know what the hell is going on."

They both looked at him, blinking with wide eyes that had no place being so cute on grown ass adults. "Ah," Bucky said, letting go of Tony's foot. Gingerly, Tony brought it back to himself and let it rest normally beside his other one. "Well, Talia and I have been talkin' recently."

When he didn't elaborate, Tony said, "That's good. You know, you live together and all, it probably wouldn't be good if you weren't speaking to each other."

"What he means to say is," Natasha paused, taking a deep breath, like she was scared how Tony was going to react and was bracing herself, "we like you."

Her statement rang in the following silence.

"That's good. We're friends, it might be a little awkward if you didn't like me."

"Tony," Bucky said, voice rumbling and low. "You know that's not what she meant doll." 

“Do I?” Tony asked. “Cause she definitely didn’t like me back when we first met, and I doubt you did either. Frankly it’s a miracle neither of you stabbed me, and now we’re sharing dinner and dancing lessons. That’s a pretty big leap, and technically none of us said that our starting bullshit was in the past. Now we have though, and we’re all good, right?” 

Bucky and Nat just stare at him. “Tony, I meant that we like you the same way we like each other. As in we want to date you and kiss you and ahem. Other things,” Nat said delicately. “All in the romantic sense.” 

Tony swallowed around his suddenly dry mouth and shifted in the chair, not knowing what to do when presented with what he'd been dreaming about for the past however many months. "I… wh- why would you even like me? You have each other, and you're both so- you're both--" he made a noise of frustration and put a hand through his hair, pulling anxiously at his roots. He let go slowly, forcing himself to pull his hands away and into his lap. "I don't see," he said in an overly controlled voice, "why you'd be interested is all. I need you both to be sure that this is what you want."

"We are sure."

"We didn't say that just to get your hopes up," Bucky said. "We know that we want you."

"Not touching you during these ballet lessons has been torture." She glared playfully at Bucky. "Although Bucky didn't have the same restraint. Tony, I don't see how you didn't know, what with him groping your thighs most of the time."

"I didn't mind," he said, cheeks pinking after he realized what he'd admitted to. Given what they were all admitting around this time though, it seemed fitting. He cleared his throat. "You're not going to stop the lessons are you? I was enjoying them."

"We hurt you," Natasha said, and it was obvious how much that bothered her.

"It was an honest mistake zvezda. Injuries happen."

"I knew I couldn't bend that way and I tried to do it anyways, it's my own fault."

Nat humphed, not sounding convinced.

"So uh," Tony licked his lips, "are you guys busy for lunch? We could go out, get food or something. Have a little date."

Bucky blinked, surprised. "You want to?"

"Yes? I… thought that was obvious," Tony said with a nervous laugh.

Nat shook her head. "Definitely not obvious, and definitely yes, we can have lunch together." She tapped Bucky's leg urgently. "You haven't showered in like three days, go."

"I thought you didn't care."

"I don't, but we have a date, and I'm not going to let our poor hygiene be the death of this relationship. Go."

"Fine, but you have to brush your teeth."

"Fine."

Deal having been struck, Bucky got up, leaning over to give Tony a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving, blushing like mad even though he pretended that he wasn’t.

"I should probably go too. Get ready and all that. See you at noon?"

"Noon sounds great."

Nat glanced over her shoulder, looking the direction that Bucky had left. "Do I get a kiss too?"

"If you want one."

She leaned forward, pressing a much longer kiss to his cheek. "Looking forward to our date," she breathed before pulling away, her breath puffing over the shell of his ear so he shivered.

A few hours later and they got back from the restaurant, falling to Tony's massive bed in a tangle of limbs, long hair, and heated skin that smelled faintly of grease from their burgers and fries. They were careful with Tony's hurt leg, but otherwise were as rough with him as he was with them, mindful of their enhanced strength but still giving him everything he wanted in perfect measure.

Tony barely got the work done on Pepper's short list before the three of them were going out to a late dinner, and then coming back again and repeating the afternoon's activity. When Tony fell asleep, his last thought was that he hoped they would still be there when he woke up.

When he did wake, it wasn't morning, the sky outside his window dark except for the occasional spot from a skyscraper's light. He rolled over, smiling faintly when he noticed that there were two bodies on the mattress with him, and fell back asleep.

When he woke for the second, more permanent time, it was to a hand stroking the edge of the arc reactor. There was a moment of brief but intense panic and he slapped their hand aside, scrambling away ineffectively.

Natasha had frozen in place and looked at him carefully. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Tony put a hand to his chest, willing his heart to slow back to normal levels. "I'm fine," he croaked. "Sorry."

Natasha shook her head, and Tony eased himself back into place between her and Bucky. Bucky was probably awake after that, but he didn't draw attention to it, keeping his back to them probably to not embarrass Tony with the knowledge that he'd woken him up. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have touched it without permission. With Bucky's arm, it helped him. For me to touch it like it was a part of him that I loved. It didn't occur to me that you would feel differently."

"It's okay. Just- not while I'm asleep."

Natasha nodded, very obviously retracting her arm back to herself. "Don't touch the arc reactor while you're sleeping, got it." She gave him a crooked smile. "We make quite the trio don't we."

"I've got the arc reactor, Bucky's got the arm…" he looked to Natasha for her to fill in the blank.

She rubbed low on her abdomen with a rueful smile. "It's not the same. I don't have a hunk of metal attached to me or anything."

"But?" he prompted gently.

"Sterilization. Permanent. On purpose," she added with a huff of laughter that she obviously didn't feel. "It didn't use to bother me, you know? I was the Black Widow, seducing terrible men to get a little information before I killed them. Kids, a family, it wasn't on my radar."

Bucky rolled over to face them but didn't say anything. Nat's eyes flicked to him and she smiled.

"It was only after Clint rescued me that it started to bother me. And then I started thinking that I'd actually grow to be old one day, and I could think about having a personal future. I met Coulson's kids, babysat them, and I just… knew that I wanted one of my own. Thirty years too late to do anything though."

"You know it doesn't matter right?" Tony said, then he heard how it sounded and winced. "Shit I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that there's other options now, depending on what the problem is. Artificial insemination or surrogacy or adoption, I didn't mean that it doesn't matter."

"I know kotyonok," she said with a quiet laugh. "I only meant," she tapped his chest, about an inch from the arc reactor, "I have an idea what it's like to have someone make a change to your body, even if, in the end, it doesn't matter. I know it's not the same," she repeated, "but I… have an idea."

Tony nodded. "Thanks for telling me. I know it's not easy."

The moment was ruined when Bucky let out a loud yawn, even if he apologized afterwards with a sheepish, "Sorry. Tired," after he finished. "By the way Ton'," he said, nuzzling his face against Tony's back, "you're not dancin' on that leg 'til it's better, y'hear?"

"You both make me feel like an old man," he grumbled.

"Not an old man," Nat corrected, "just a hurt one."

"Hmph."

Bucky giggled. "Okay, now you sound like an old man."

"Fuck off."

"A very crotchety old man," he added, finishing his sentence with another yawn. "Without the body to match though. Too hot for that, y'know."

"I'm about to poke you," Tony groused.

Bucky made a wounded noise, and Tony rolled onto his back to look at him. He was staring at Tony with wide eyes and making a face so innocent that if Tony didn't know better, he would have thought that Bucky was innocent of anything and everything in the world.

"You are a menace."

* * *

As it turned out, Tony didn't have to wait for his leg to heal, since that afternoon they had to help corral a well-meaning amateur magician. Maybe 'amateur' was a bit generous. The kid was seven, and she was turning lampposts and empty cars into flowers and unicorns because she thought all the metal was ugly. Since she was a far cry from a villain, she was also sending random healing spells at people-- 'just in case they had a cold' she later explained around her juice box straw-- and one of them hit Tony and fixed his leg in seconds flat.

When they got back to the Tower after clean up, Tony convinced Nat and Bucky to give him another ballet lesson tomorrow, and with his lack of injury, they readily agreed. They uh, didn't make it to the dancing. It was more like Bucky pushed him to the mat and ate his ass so thoroughly that Tony was a shivering, whimpering mess that couldn't stand on his own for the half hour afterwards.

The next day they actually managed to dance, and Nat looked up a beginner's dance and taught it to him. It was simple, almost ridiculously so, but Tony still felt the swell of pride in him when he managed to do it without messing up.

A couple weeks later, Tony got more comfortable, both in their relationship and his dancing. Somewhere along the way, he forgot that none of them told the other Avengers that they were doing more than dancing now, and they were all giving him weird looks because of how Nat was draped over his shoulders for dinner as everyone arrived.

Bucky walked in and everyone tensed like they were expecting him to freak out, but he simply took the seat on Tony's other side and gave both of them a kiss before settling in.

"Am I the only one that doesn't know what's going on?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Clint said.

Steve frowned. "I don't know what's going on."

"Fine, neither of you know what's going on, but I know, and they obviously know," he said, motioning towards the trio, "so that makes us the majority. Besides, it's pretty clear what's happening."

"Is it?" Steve asked, wondering why Tony, Nat, and Bucky were all just watching instead of answering. When he glanced at them though, they were all looking on with various levels of amusement; he frowned at them.

"They're all fucking," Clint said, and Steve's frown deepened.

"But they're acting all… lovey-dovey."

Clint rolled his eyes and Bucky chimed in. "We're a couple, only instead of two people, there is now three."

"Oh." He threw a glob of butter at Clint because he wasn't looking, and it hit his cheek with a splat. "How hard would that have been to say?"

"Easy but not near as much fun," Clint said, wiping the butter off on his palm and-- because he was disgusting-- eating it.

"You're going to die young," Tony said.

"That was going to happen with or without the butter," Nat said. "Do you have any idea how many enemies he's made?"

"Aww but I have you as a friend so it balances out."

She flipped him off and turned her attention back to Tony. "You should give Steve dating advice, I think he could use the help."

"Just because things ended horribly with Stephanie doesn't mean I need help," he grumbled.

"She screamed at you in the middle of a coffee shop."

"Because I spilled something on her!"

"Because she asked you for a threesome with her and her friend in the middle of a coffee shop when the two of you hadn't even had sex yet," Sam said, looking more sympathetic than the rest of them, who mostly found this funny.

"You have to work up to threesome talk," Nat said, nodding sagely.

"Well it worked for you," Clint said.

"Because I let us work up to it." Bucky nodded along in agreement, and Tony did too because while he hadn’t been there for it, he was sure it was the truth. 

“Really, Steve, you’re better off,” Nat said, fixing Tony’s hair although he could have sworn it was fine when he walked in. “Anyone who would think that was an acceptable way of asking can’t be trusted.” 

Steve groaned. “None of you are going to let this go are you.” 

“No.” 

* * *

The three of them were (figuratively) putting their heads together to find an easy dance that included a partner so that Tony could dance with them, but they weren’t having much luck. After a little struggling and trying to put one together themselves, Bucky opted to sit and watch them dance together. 

Tony had been uncertain at first, saying that if two of them were dancing, it should be the two that actually knew what they were doing, but Natasha insisted that that wasn’t the point. After another minute of waffling, Tony caved. 

Natasha was standing behind him, guiding his movements. Tony usually felt clumsy compared to her cultivated grace, but with her leading him, it was… god it felt as amazing as Bucky and Nat had looked that first day that he’d seen them dancing together. He got lost in it, following her directions easily after the first twenty minutes, and by the time they spun to a stop, they both had the healthy flush of exercise on them. 

“I love you,” Bucky said reverently, staring at the pair of them with his feelings clear in his eyes. 

Tony was smiling when he glanced over at Natasha and elbowed her side lightly. “See? That’s how good you dance. You made him fall in love all over again.” 

“I think he was talking to you,” Nat said, smiling back at him. 

Before Tony could deny that on Bucky’s behalf, Bucky piped up. “It’s true doll. Never seen ya look so happy.” 

“You… you love me?” Tony asked. 

“Of course we do,” Nat said softly, and Tony turned to look at her. “I can’t-” she made a face to reference the three little words “-quite yet but, me too. You.” 

Tony blinked, both at what she was saying and the awkward way she was saying it. “I- uh. I can’t either, but I. I do too. Both of you.” 

Bucky’s smile widened, and he got to his feet from where he’d patiently watched them dance and walked over. He put an arm around both of them and kissed their foreheads. “So, wanna go upstairs and do a little horizontal dancing?” 

“You’re ruining the moment,” Tony joked automatically. 

“Love you too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr [@cami-chats](http://cami-chats.tumblr.com)


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